Install OSX 6 from External USB Drive

I have a Macbook running OSX 5.8 with a broken superdrive. I want to upgrade to Snow Leapord. I want to copy the installer to an external USB HD and install from it. Another alternative would be to install from another external Macbook or Macbook Air. Would that be possible? I also have an IBook with a CD Drive. Which way is best? How do I go about doing it?
TIA

I don't see that model listed so I have no idea what it does and does not support or what hardware it has. If it has a floppy drive you could try making the boot floppies to boot from (it will start the process then access the install files from the CD). http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310994
If you don't post your COMPLETE model number it's very difficult to assist you. Please try to post in complete sentences with punctuation, capitals, and correct spelling. Toshiba does NOT provide any direct support in these forums. All support is User to User in their spare time.

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Install OSx on external usb drive.

I have an iMac G5 isight that has unreliable internal hard drive connection. I've swapped out several hard drives that work fine in other computers, but there seems to be an issue with accessing it on this iMac.
So I would like to try and install OSx on an external usb drive. I have alreay found that I can boot from an external usb on this computer, the problem is it won't let me install OSx on to the usb drive when I boot from a disc.
The only other macs I have are Intel based which won't let me put a powerpc installation on to an external.
I'd rather not purchase a firewire external, and I'm not sure that I know of anyone with a working powerpc mac.
Any suggestions??

Use a product such as Carbon Copy Cloner to clone an already existing PowerPC or Universal installation to an external partitioned using the APM table map. The OS used must be at least as new as the iMac and not newer than 10.5.8.
(62109)

Problems installing OSX from bootable USB drive

I'm trying to downgrade from 10.8.3 to 10.7.5, mainly because of the reduced battery life in Mountain Lion.
I have created a bootbale USB thumbdrive with 10.7.5 on it.
I restart the machine holding down the Option key, but the USB drive does not appear in the available drives. All that appears is the Macintosh HD and the 10.8.3 recovery.
Why is the USB not appearing.
I have a retina MacBook Pro 15 from mid 2012. It was shipped with Lion.
Nigel

Download on the iMac OS X Recovery Disk Assistant v1.0 and create a USB recovery disk.
Use that USB disk to boot your MBP retina.
Use the Terminal, that you find inside the recovery environment, to perform these commands
Verifiy that the main internal disk is labelled /dev/disk0
diskutil list
this command will completely erase the internal disk. Please change /dev/disk0 if your is different, (it should not).
diskutil eraseDisk jhfs+ "Macintosh HD" GPT /dev/disk0
Verify that you just have 3 partition, no more Recovery HD partition
diskutil list
/dev/disk0
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *500.1 GB   disk0
   1:                        EFI                         209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS Macintosh HD            499.2 GB   disk0s2
Quit Terminal and proceed with Reinstall Mac OS X
It'll take a lot of time, depending on the speed of your internet connection.
Please, do not hesitate to ask if you are in doubt

Install data from external hard drive?

Hi, we have our old macbook data saved on external hard drive (old laptop had water damage but able to retrieve data). I now have new macbook, how do I install data from external hard drive to new macbook? Is it super easy? I didn't want to set up new laptop until I could understand how to install all our old data. Thanks

Do you have the appropriate cable to connect the external drive to to new Macbook?
If you do, the rest is easy. Connect the drive and start up the new Mac. The first steps in the setup will be to enter information about yourself, etc. etc. As you proceed you will be asked if you want to bring in data from another place. Just follow the directions, and the Mac Setup Assistant will do everything for you.
The critical part is making sure the external is corectly connected to the new computer.

Can i install SL on external usb drive & how to transfer over existing HDD

Hi
I have a MBP with around 200Gb used on a 500GB hdd ( installed after warantee ran out ). The MBP has been working fine for a year or so now but when i tried installing Snow Leopard i found the HDD was not setup as GUID which stopped the installation.
I thought i would install SL on an external USB drive which had been setup as GUID but after 4 attempts this failed as well for some unknown reason.
What i would like to know is,
1. if possible, how to transfer my data and settings etc to the external hdd from my current hdd inside the laptop.
2. How to set up boot camp ( i have a few ms programs that run erratically in mac fusion or parallels)
Can anyone help with this?
Thanks
Kev

Hi Harrison,
is this a firewire drive? Be aware that you cannot boot from a USB drive: Don't start up from an external USB device.
Also make sure your drive's firmware is up to date.

Booting from external USB drive

I was wondering if there is any way to boot from a USB drive that I have? I partitioned the drive, erased it, and its basically ready to go. But I can't install Mac OS X on it because it says that I cannot reboot from the drive.
I know that iBook G4s generally can't boot from a USB devise but is there any way to get around this?

If you're computer is having kernel panics there's a conflict; either software or hardware. 2GB of free space isn't enough but I haven't seen anything that suggests KPs are caused by too little free space. Your computer should start fine with 2GB free. It may have problems after a period of use but it would startup and run.
Try starting in Safe Mode. If successful move some of your files to the external drive and then restart normally. If it KPs again, restart in safe mode and disable all startup items in System Preferences>Accounts>youraccount and restart. If it KPs again go through the linked troubleshooting steps by Dr. Smoke step by step. That's the only way to resole your problem.

HP dv6-6188ca windows 7 pro 64b amd chipset 8G locks up copying files to/from external usb drive

When ever I try to copy a large (>2G) file to or from a external usb drive the computer starts the copy but gets stuck. It has to be powered off and the battery removed to get it to work again.

Please repost your inquiry in the Microsoft Windows 7 Performance Forum.
Thank you!
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows Expert - Consumer

Installing Leopard on external USB drive

Hi there,
I am trying to wipe a drive clean via an external USB drive box. Might somebody explain how I can do this? When I boot on the Leopard DVD I arrive at the drive choice screen and there is a big red "exclamation point" on the external USB drive mount icon. What can I do to get around this problem?
Cheers,
Noah

Noah Wallach wrote:
Hi there,
I am trying to wipe a drive clean via an external USB drive box. Might somebody explain how I can do this? When I boot on the Leopard DVD I arrive at the drive choice screen and there is a big red "exclamation point" on the external USB drive mount icon. What can I do to get around this problem?
Cheers,
Noah
Although you can boot some systems via USB, the drive must first and foremost be bootable. Not all external drives are bootable. The firmware must support booting. For example, my Maxtor 160 that I use for TM on my G5 states in the manual that it cannot boot.
You are having a somewhat different issue, in that you are not yet ready to boot, but the drive cannot be seen by DU.
I would see if the external drive can first be partitioned and formatted in Leopard directly by running DU in the Leopard Utility folder, not from the DVD.
I would check for a firmware update for your drive box.

Ibook G4 Back-up from external USB drive

I had a problem with the internal drive on my iBook G4 that could not be repaired easily. I therefore backed up the drive using Superduper to an Iomega USB drive. I then reformatted the internal drive and fixed the faulty sector with Disc Utilities. I tried to restore the drive from the USB drive using Disk Utilities. The problem is that the OS (10.3.9) will not mount the disk saying that there is no disk image. I can open the USB drive on a Macbook Pro without any problem and Disc Utilities on that machine can also see the disk image.
Does anyone have any ideas as to how to fix this problem?
Sam

One of the problems that could come up, may be in the format selected for use in
the setup of the external USB hard disk drive. Another would be the speed of the
USB ports in the computer, since the fastest data transfer would still be a bit slow
when compared to using a more suitable FireWire400 external enclosure with a
known-bootable chipset designed for use in OS X and PowerPC G-series Macs.
If the format of the USB drive is incorrect, the data on it would be lost through an
effort of reformatting it; so the disk image would have to be saved to another disc
or media. The backup to/from a USB drive when dealing with PPC hardware is
usually more problematic and USB generally is not preferred or recommended.
A bootable FireWire external enclosure with port options, such as some have now,
is a better gamble; as some sport USB2.0, FireWire400 & FW800; and boot OS X.
So a backup Clone can boot the computer from a FW enclosure, but generally not
from a USB2.0 or 1.1 external enclosure. My FW400 LaCie 250 Porsche works well.
So, regarding the first issue you mention; the formatting scheme may be incorrect
on the external drive for the older PPC iBook G4 to see valid files on there. The
Intel-based Macs use a different GUID partition map and may have a different kind
of format than the preferred HFS+ (iBook needs APM and HFS+) for the hardware.
Hopefully this is of some help.
Good luck & happy computing!

Installing Sol10 from DVD - USB drive as flash source

OK. First I managed to format the removable USB drive as UFS. Then I
could mount it as a UFS drive and copy my flash archive file onto it.
I've got another machine that I want to install Solaris 10 and use
this flash archive. So I boot from DVD and was hoping to be able to
specify the USB drive as location of flash archive. Trouble is even
going into the mini-shell it doesnt seem to work.
Any ideas? Or are there easier ways to do this?
I did think of Jumpstart or specifying the flash location as netwrok
drive or FTP but I dont think thats going to work. Trouble is first
time around I had a job getting the network interface to work - not
supported during the solaris 10 install but had to install a driver
later.
Is there any way to slipstream this driver into the Solaris 10
install? (like you can do with windows)

z92 wrote:
I am trying to install Windows (8, specifically, but that has nothing to do with my problem) on my MacBook Pro 15-inch, mid 2009 (3.06 Ghz Intel Core 2 duo, 4 GB 1067 Mhz memory) running OS X 10.8.2.
I have a Windows 8 ISO and a 8 GB USB drive, so it is my understanding that I should be able to create a Windows install disk on the USB drive using boot camp. This looks incredibly easy based on every tutorial I have found online, and if I got the screenshot they all show me, I'm sure I would have no trouble:
However this is not the screenshot I get. Originally I was trying to do this last night on OS X 10.7, and I thought the issue might be with my version of bootcamp, but I have now purchased and upgraded to 10.8 and have the same issue with boot camp 5.0, that is my Boot Camp initialization looks like this:
As you can see, I am missing the key option of creating a Windows install disk.
I've exhausted my google-ing capabilities trying to find out why my Boot Camp does not give me this option, or trying to find a work-around, but it seems to create a Windows install disk from an ISO on a USB without Boot Camp can't be done on a Mac.
Can anyone please help me resolve this issue?
You are nearly right, it can't be done on a Mac that has an optical drive, and yours does. Burn the ISO to a DVD.

Import/Sync Photo's from external USB drive

I would like to sync photos that are stored in a external USB drive. In iTunes the files are greyed out and I am unable to select them unless I first import them into iPhoto. That is a waste of space. Is there a workaround for this?

Check your permissions for the drive, folders and files you are trying to use. Are the photos in the correct format on the drive.

Is it possible to install leopard from external USB DVD drive?

Hi all,
I've read through the various posts on the subject and there doesn�t seem to be a definitive answer on this. I've got a Lacie USB2 DL DVD drive which I'm trying to use to install leopard on an earlier MacBook Pro (core duo 2.0ghz). I've tried the various suggestions (hold c on boot, hold option key on boot, set dvd as startup drive), and so far been unsuccessful. The drive is just not recognized.
The DVD media is fine(I've got family edition of Leopard), I've successfully installed it on my G5. The Lacie drive recognizes it fine, when I'm in tiger on MBP and insert the disk it is mounted as I would expect. I did try dbl-clicking the install icon as well (in case you were wondering)
So, does anyone have any other ideas for me to try, or should I go and get a refund on the Lacie drive? The guys in the store (Apple authorized reseller, not Apple Store) assured me it would work, so I don't want to look like a clown if it is possible and I'm just doing it wrong
Anyway, thanks in advance for any replies.

Hi,
Thanks for the reply. Yes the MBP is currently running Tiger, I want to flatten this with a fresh install of Leopard. I can view the install DVD when in Tiger currently.
I haven't tried what you have suggested, but I have seen various posts suggesting this approach. I've also seen several posts explain how to create a partition on an external firewire Harddrive and this seems to have worked for various people.
This would however mean that I didn't really need the external Lacie drive at all, as I've got access to my G5s DVD drive over the network. The more I search on this, the more convinced I am the USB drive was a bad idea.
Once again thank for the response.

How to install Tiger to external USB drive?

Hi!
I have external 80 GB USB 2.0 LaCie Hard Drive and want to install Tiger to it. But i have some problems...
I have bootable install DVD.
I'm inserting it, waiting, then choose language.
Then I'm starting Disc Utility, formatting whole drive to HFS+ filesystem, and then install Tiger to a new partition. All seems to be great, installation finishes, and says that i need to restart. Restaring... And my computer boots from DVD, not from HDD... Also, i looked in Startup Disc util, but thre is no my HDD, only boot DVD.
Also i've noticed in install log when installing process comes to end, some strange words:
-Disc partition is not MBR
-Can't set bootable device /dev/disk2s10
disk2s10 - its my HFS+ partition in external drive.
Maybe im doing something wrong? Wrong partitioning, etc.?
Please help me.

Without knowing how or what was on the USB drive (FAT32?) you might need to go into Disk Utility -> Partition -> Options and set the drive format to "GUID" from whatever it is now.
that should do the trick. PPC uses "APL" format which won't allow installing on an IntelMac.
I think "MBR" is probably "Mac Boot Record".
Anyway, give that a shot.

Install Windows from external dvd drive?

ok.there is my problem.
I have a Mac Pro here.Last week the dvd driver stopped work and I do not have time to fix it now and I need urgently install the windows xp because need to use a specific app for windows.
Is it possible to install windows xp on bootcamp using a external dvd drive (usb).
thank you.

I have the exact same problem - my internal SuperDrive died and I'll be damned if I'm going to pay over $500 to get a new one. It appears to be utterly impossible to install Windows from an external DVD drive. At least it seems to be that way for me and my machine.
I've tried my drive connected with USB and with Firewire. I've tried rEFIt. I've tried booting with the Option/Alt key. My Mac seems unable (or unwilling) to do this.
I've found many many people with the same problem and only a very small handful that seem to eventually get it to work.
I've even tried to use the 30 day trial of VMFusion (which is not a long term solution because it doesn't use/mimic sufficient video drivers to support the games I want to play) to install Windows to the partition and I can't get that to work either. The Windows installer seems to refuse to install an older version of the system when the boot version has already been updated to a new one.
Does anyone out there have a way to reliably install Windows on a BootCamp partition?
Cheers,
Fusilier

Can I transfer single files both ways from external usb drive to internal ssd drive?

I just installed an ssd 240g in a mac pro and put the old 500 hd to the usb port for backup . how can I access individual files from the external storage to the internal ? I can sign in only one a HD at a time now.

My guess is that you cloned the hard drive to the SSD, correct? In that case you can still view both drives at a time. Just plug in your external hard drive, open Finder, and look for it on the left-hand side of the window (called the sidebar). Click on it once you have found it, and you should be good to go!

Install OSX 6 from External USB Drive

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